The Special Areas Board is the governing body of
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
's special areas. Special areas are designated
rural municipalities similar to
municipal districts
A municipal district is an administrative entity comprising a clearly-defined territory and its population. It can refer to a city, a town, a village, a small grouping of them, or a rural area.
Brazil
In Brazil, municipal districts are, in genera ...
; however, the elected advisory councils are overseen by four representatives appointed by the province, under the direct authority of
Alberta Municipal Affairs.
The three special areas were created in 1938 under the authority of the Special Areas Act
as a result of hardship brought upon a particular area in southeastern Alberta during the
drought of the 1930s.
[ A special area is not to be confused with a ]specialized municipality
A specialized municipality is a unique type of municipal status in the Canadian province of Alberta. These unique local governments are formed without the creation of special legislation, and typically allow for the coexistence of urban and ru ...
, which is a completely different municipal status.
The special areas are administered under the provisions of the ''Special Areas Act''. The three special areas are located in southeast Alberta within Census Division 4.
History
The Special Areas Act of 1938 created the six special areas of Tilley East, Berry Creek, Sullivan Lake, Sounding Creek, Neutral Hills, and Bow West, which had previously been special municipal areas. In 1939, these six special areas were consolidated into the four special areas listed below. The original six special areas included 3.2 million hectares, while the current three only include 2.1 million hectares.
*Tilley East Special Area, No. 1: The northern part of this special area was withdrawn and added to Berry Creek-Sullivan Lake Special Area in 1941, and now forms the portion of Special Area No. 2 that is south of the Red Deer River. Tilley East was still a special area in 1955,
List
Alberta's three special areas had a combined population of 4,184 in 2016.[
]
See also
* List of census divisions of Alberta
*List of communities in Alberta
The province of Alberta, Canada, is divided into ten types of local governments – urban municipalities (including cities, towns, villages and summer villages), specialized municipalities, rural municipalities (including municipal distr ...
*List of municipal districts in Alberta
A municipal district (MD) is the most common form of all rural municipality statuses used in the Canadian province of Alberta. Alberta's municipal districts, most of which are branded as a county (e.g. Yellowhead County, County of Newell, e ...
*List of municipalities in Alberta
Alberta is the fourth-most populous province in Canada with 4,262,635 residents as of 2021 Census of Population and is the fourth-largest in land area at . Alberta's 344 municipalities cover of the province's land mass and are home to of i ...
* Special Areas Act 1934, a British act also imposed due to hardships
* List of specialized municipalities in Alberta
References
External links
*
{{Types of administrative country subdivision
Local government in Alberta